Line-making device



Jan. 15, 1952 J. F. BOSQUET LINE-MAKING DEVICE Filed Oct. 19, 1949 A'ITORN EYS Patented Jan. 15, 1952 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE LIN E-MAKING DEVICE John F. Bosquet, New York, N. Y.

Application October 19, 1949, Serial No. 122,266 Claims. (01. 197-113) This invention relates to a line making device for typewriters.

It is among the objects of the invention to provide a line making device that is simple and compact in construction, and may be incorporated in a standard typewriter with but minor modifications in the construction thereof, which does not require the use of the type ribbon for its operation and is devoid of inking pads which may dry upon exposure to the air with the resultant inoperativeness of the device, and which device is simple to operate and may be used by any typist with but a minimum of instruction to make both horizontal and vertical lines, without smudging or blotting and without shifting of the carriage from upper to lower case with resultant inconvenience to the user.

. According to the invention these objects are accomplished by the arrangement and combination of elements hereinafter described and particularly recited in the claims.

In the accompanying drawing in which is shown one of various possible embodiments of the several features of the invention,

Fig. 1 is a fragmentary diagrammatic front elevational view of a typewriter illustrating the general location of the line making device,

Fig. 2 is a diagrammatic View on a larger scale of the device,

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary diagrammatic perspective view on a larger scale of the marking head and type head guides,

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary diagrammatic view of a typewriter showing ;a. conventional type head in writing position, and

Fig. 5 is a view similar to Fig. 3 of the marking head alone.

Referring now to the drawing, the typewriter diagrammatically shown in Figs. 1, 2 and 4 may be of any conventional type and is equipped with the usual platen II over and around which may be disposed a sheet of paper I2 to receive the type imprint.

Associated'with the platen II are the conventional spaced type head guides I 3 and I4 between which, as shown in Fig. 4, a conventional type head I5 is positioned, when its associated type key is depressed to imprint the selected character on paper I2.

Positioned between the platen I I and the guides I3 and I4, is a conventional inked ribbon I 6 which extends substantially parallel to the platen I I and which may be carried at the upper end of a vertically reciprocable ribbon shift ll. Ribbon shift I! is desirably slidably mounted in a suitable bracket I8 rigid with the typewriter frame with the lower end I9 of the ribbon shift I "I in the path of movement of and normally actuated by a ribbon shift cam conformation 2| on the enlarged root end 22 of the conventional type head carrying bar 23. Actuation of ribbon shift I? occurs when a bar 23 is pivoted to striking position shown in Fig. 4, in usual manner, by the depression of the associated type key (not shown) which brings the type head at the free end of bar 23 against the paper on the platen.

The construction thus far described is not per se claimed herein as it is conventional.

According to the present invention, the line making device shown in Figs. 1, 2, 3 and 5 comprises a type bar 24 which is substantially similar to type bar 23 except that it is not formed with a cam conformation 2I.

Type bar 24 is desirably hung so as to pivot on a support 26 in the same conventional manner as are type head carrying bars 23, by means of a hook 25, formed integrally therewith at the root end 22 thereof. Desirably type bar 24 is positioned to the extreme left or right (illustratively the extreme left as shown in Fig. 1) of the type bars 23 mounted on support 26.

A marking head 21 is mounted on the free end of type bar 24, which head although it may utilize a pencil, crayon or the like, preferably comprises a hollow container with a ball point pen 28 rigid therewith which container desirably has a filling plug 21 provided with a vent 28' therein. Although head 2! could be removably mounted on said type bar, in the illustrative embodiment herein shown it is rigidly afiixed thereto. To this end, a guide fin 29 which'is desirably formed integral with the upper end of type bar 25 is positioned and aifixed as by welding in a slot 30 formed in a wedge shaped member 40 preferably formed integral with the bottom of the marking head 21. Thus, when type bar 24 is pivoted to operating position, the guide fin and wedge member 40 will be positioned between the guides I3 and I4 as shown in Fig. 3, to prevent lateral displacement of the marking head.

The pivoting of type bar 24 is accomplished by a linkage which may be identical to the linkage pivoting type bars 23. Such linkage, as

shown in Fig. 2, may comprise asubstantially' L- shaped lever 3| pivoted as at 32 to the frame of the typewriter. The substantially vertical leg 33 of lever BI is pivotally connected by a link 34 to a hook 35 also formed integrally with the root end of type bar 24. The horizontal leg 36 of lever 3| has a yoke at the free end thereof,

the legs 3'! of which straddle a laterally extending pin 38 rigid with the side of a key lever 39. The latter is pivotally mounted at its rear end as by a spring 4| which retains the lever 39 against pivot 32. The front end of the key lever 39 has a vertical portion 43 which mounts the type key 44.

-Thus, upon depression of key 44, pin 38 will move downward pivoting lever 31 which in turn through link 34 will pull on the hook end 35 of type bar 2 3, pivoting the latter about support 23 to the position shown in dot and dash lines in Fig. 2, and causing the guide fin 29 of the marking head at the free end of the type bar 24 to move between the guides l3 and 14 so that ball point 28 presses against the paper l2.

In the operation of a typewriter in which the line making device is incorporated, when the ordinary type key is depressed to imprint a character, as type bar 23 is pivoted through the linkage above described and the type head i is moved to striking position, cam conformation 2! will engage end E9 of ribbon shift ll to lift the latter to move the ribbon into the path of movement of the type head. This is the conventional typing operation.

When it is desired to draw lines on the paper on the platen, key 4 1 is depressed and through the associated linkage above described will pivot type bar 24 so that the ball point 28 will press against the paper on the platen. As the type bar 24 has no cam conformation 2|, when type bar 24 is pivoted, the root end 22 thereof will pass beneath the end i9 of ribbon shift ll. Thus the ribbon will not be lifted and hence will not be in the path of the ball point 28 which might cause smudging or blurring of the lines being drawn and also crumpling and possibly tearing of the ribbon. While keeping the key 42 depressed, the operator then need merely rotate the platen forward or backward to make a continuous clean vertical line or move the carriage carrying the platen from left to right or right to left to make a like horizontal line.

As the same point, i. e., ball point 28 is used to make both horizontal and vertical lines, there is no need for shifting from lower to upper case for this purpose and hence it is a relatively simple operation for the operator to depress key 42 with one finger and use the other hand to rotate the platen or shift the carriage as is desired.

As the type bar 26 carrying the marking head 27 is substantially similar to the conventional type head carrying bars 23, it may be included in a typewriter during the initial construction thereof, or the type bar 24 and its head 21 may readily be incorporated as an attachment into a standard typewriter with but minor modifications in the structure thereof.

As many changes could be made in the above construction, and many apparently widely different embodiments of this invention could be made without departing from the scope of the claims, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description or shown in the accompanying drawings shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. In a typewriting machine of the type having a platen, a plurality of type bars each mounting .a type head and each having a ribbon shift conformation, a pair of type head guides, key levers connected to the respective type bars, a ribbon positioned between said guides and the platen, and a ribbon shift having means on the lower end thereof engaged and operated by a ribbon shift conformation on the type bar being actuated thereby to lift the ribbon into the path of movement of the type head; the combination therewith of an additional key lever, a marking head, marking means carried by said head, a pivotally mounted bar carrying said marking head, linkage between said bar and said key lever to bring said marking means into engagement with paper on said platen when said key lever is depressed, said bar being a substantial duplicate of each type bar, but devoid of the ribbon shift conformation, so that when it is pivoted by the depressing of the additional key lever it will clear the means on the ribbon shift so as not to lift the ribbon.

2. The combination set forth in claim 1 in which said marking head is substantially hollow and has a filling plug and said marking means comprises a ball point pen, said head having venting means.

3. The combination set forth in claim 1 in which said marking head has a guide fin rigid therewith on the underface thereof and adapted to be positioned between said guides when the key lever is pivoted, thereby preventing lateral displacement of said marking head.

4. The combination set forth in claim 1 in which said marking head is substantially hollow and has a filling plug and said marking means comprises a ball point pen, means being provided'to vent said head, said head having a guide fin rigid therewith on the underface thereof and adapted to be positioned between said guides when the additional key lever is pivoted. thereby preventing lateral displacement of said marking head.

5. The combination set forth in claim 1 in which said marking head has a wedge shaped member affixed to the base thereof and having a slot therethrough, and said pivotally mounted bar associated with said head has a guide fin at the upper end thereof rigidly afiixed in said slot, said wedge shaped member being adapted to be positioned between said guides when the additional key lever is pivoted, thereby preventing lateral displacement of said marking head.

. JOHN F. BOSQUET.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 724,773 Alexander Apr. 7, 1903 950,543 Schneeloch Mar. 1, 1910 1,018,985 Pfau Feb. 27, 1912 2,499,714 Becan Mar. 7, 1950 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 773,754 France Sept. 10, 1934 

